Waning Gibbous
by The Shadow of Nothingness
Summary: Four years after the crash. Four years since that horrific ninth birthday. Four years later, Charlie watches the videos.


**Rated T for swearing (really really bad swearing at the end) and character death... and feels. Serious feels. I edited this while listening to a really beautifully sad song. *cries* ONESHOT. ONE. SHOT. NO. SEQUEL.**

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_Waning Gibbous: The last phase of the moons incompleteness before it becomes full and intensifying._

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Charlie smiled sadly as she looked at the television screen.

Today was her thirteenth birthday, Toby's ninth and the four year anniversary of P.J and Teddy dying.

Exactly four years ago, while driving to her and Toby's joint birthday party, Charlie's three older siblings had been in P.J's car. Every odd was stacked against them. Teddy and Gabe were bickering (the cars around them had heard it in traffic and reported it when the investigators tried to figure out what went wrong), there was ice on the roads from a freak storm and the driver that crashed into them was drunk.

P.J was killed instantly, being on the side that was rammed and in the front of the car, Teddy lasted three days unconscious before her body finally shut down completely. As for Gabe… he was still in a coma.

The only reason her parents hadn't turned off the life support is because there were signs that Gabe was still alive. Every so often there was an eye flicker, of a twitch, or something that meant he was still there.

Toby had was hit the worst by all of this. He was only six when it all unfolded, and he had always looked up to his older siblings. Toby spent days crying with Bob and Amy, and Charlie still found him looking at a family picture on his bed, silent tears falling. Charlie just sat like a statue. Not a single tear had fallen since the crash.

Charlie had been like a ghost ever since, she never talked to anybody except for 'pass the salt' or permission slip to go to the bathroom in school. And those were rare as the 29th of February. She only ever showed the tiniest hint of life in her when Gabe showed life in him. Charlie's face was emotionless, all the time.

But that doesn't mean she didn't feel.

Every single thing reminded Charlie of her older siblings. The family car, Toby's room (which was P.J and Gabe's old room), her own bedroom (kindly given to her from Teddy when the older girl had moved out because it had more space), the library, school, the couch in the living room, the red wall phone downstairs, when Jo came over to pay respects to Gabe and his family, Teddy's old pillow that still resided on Charlie's bed, P.J's guitar was sat in a corner of the living room collecting dust, the ribbon that read 'GABE'S PLACE' from when P.J left to go to KCU (a two day Kwiki Chiki university) and even the porch seat out the front. Definitely the porch seat out the front.

Everything in the house, everything at school, everything around Charlie made her feel like curling up in a ball in her room and never coming out. Everything around her induced tears to threaten falling. Everything around her made her feel so upset and alone that she wanted to follow P.J and Teddy.

The only thing that stopped her was Toby. She couldn't bare to leave him. This family went from five kids to two in the split second that P.J turned to scream at his younger siblings to be quiet. In the split second where a drunk driver drove straight through a red light, and crashed straight into the front of the car, mashing up more than half of it, P.J and Teddy concertina folding with it.

Charlie took in a deep breath and let it out again shakily.

Four years since her birthday was completely ruined, four years since every birthday has been a time of mourning, not celebration.

Four years.

About time to move on and brighten up.

Charlie leant over to the laptop and her hand hovered over the play button. She had plugged the laptop into the television, to watch the video diaries Teddy made, and knew she needed to watch them, but didn't want to at the same time. Charlie lived her life with a big hole in her chest, and she didn't want that growing with hurt when she saw her families face.

It was right as her hand was about to hit play that Toby came bursting into the house.

"We have to get in the car, NOW," he ordered his older sister, pointing to the car where their father was waiting. Charlie frowned but complied, and even though she vowed never to speak, she had to ask when they got into the car.

"What's going on?" she rasped the whisper, barely audible, but the car was so quiet both her brother and father could hear it like the clearest thing in the world.

"Gabe might be waking up. His eyes have fluttered three times in the past hour and his feet and fingers have been twitching," Bob explained quickly, speeding through traffic.

Charlie sat back in her seat and impatiently waited to get to the hospital.

Four years.

She was going to see her brother wake up. She knew, she just _knew _right then and there, that he would wake up today. She could feel it.

Once they reached the hospital, the three Duncan's raced into a room Charlie knew how to find with her eyes closed. They reached the room and threw it open. Amy was sitting in a chair, right by her son, a nurse on the other side of the bed.

"Anything?" Toby asked. His big brown eyes were wide with worry, but his voice so mature for a nine year old.

'_What a hectic birthday_,' Charlie mused to herself. Amy shook her head, tears in her eyes and lips pursed to hold back sobs.

"Come on, honey," Bob's eyes went downcast, "Lets go get a coffee from the cafeteria."

Amy stood up and walked over to her husband, falling into his arms.

"You kids wanna go with them?" the nurse asked Charlie and Toby. Charlie shook her head and sat in the chair next to Gabe. The nurse left the room, and as soon as the door shut Toby began to cry. Charlie frowned and stood up, rushing to her little brother.

The blonde girl held him tight, wishing she knew what to say. Toby didn't mind that she never spoke, though. He just wanted to know that his older sister was there, and always there.

They stayed like that for a while, and once Toby stopped crying they stayed for a little while more.

Then the younger of the two saw something and his eyes widened further than ever.

Toby let out something between a squeal, a squeak and a yell and pointed to Gabe. Charlie's eyes widened and she screamed for the nurse, while Toby ran to Gabe's side. The nurse came in and pulled the breathing tube out, so that Gabe could breathe by himself and not choke to death. Charlie stood in shock as her older brother's eyes blinked open. He had woken up.

"Who- Wha…" Gabe mumbled. His voice was raspy and he barely managed to croak out his words, but Charlie recognized the voice. She had grown up with it and for the last four years she had yearned to listen to it. Wished it was there, telling her everything was okay, or maybe telling her about a prank to pull on Mrs. Dabney (because the wretched witch of a woman was still alive and would probably outlive them all).

"Where the fuck am I?" Gabe croaked, and Toby smiled, wanting to hug him, but hugged Charlie instead.

"Your at the hospital… You…" Charlie was at loss for words, her voice almost as croaky as Gabe's. The nurse quickly intervened and cut Charlie off. Charlie didn't mind, she didn't have words to speak anyway.

"Mr. Duncan, what's the last thing you remember?" she asked. Gabe frowned, trying to remember.

"I don't know!" he shouted a the nurse, his voice breaking with the strain of yelling. "I kinda just woke up, lady!"

Charlie couldn't help but chuckle to herself. Gabe was back to normal. Gabe grumbled and thought for a moment. "Uhh… I remember… Driving back home to Charlie's birthday party. We had gotten presents, but I used half of my money on a game so Teddy was yelling at me…" Gabe shook his head and the nurse nodded, stood up straight and left the room.

After she left, Gabe had a go at sitting up. It would have worked, as his wounds were all healed, but he hadn't used any parts of his body for years. As he began to shake, Toby reacted first and ran to his side to help him. For a nine-year-old, Toby was pretty fast, and pretty strong.

Charlie stood where she was and watched the two brothers. Apparently, as Teddy used to tell her, Gabe used to be the odd-one-out in the family, standing out a bit with his dark brown hair in a family of blondes. Of course, all the kids knew the Amy was originally brunette, and that her blonde hair was mainly dye, but with the blonde hair dye, Gabe still stuck out to an onlooker. But then little Toby came along, with a signature smirk when he giggled, dark brown eyes and hair to match. He had grown up with a thin build and a tiny personality, almost wimpy, but no one really blamed him. To be honest, he wasn't a wimp. Toby was arguably the most brave and strong Duncan, the way he let himself cry, he stood up strong with all he had been through, and he held his family on his shoulders.

Gabe and Toby were so, so, so similar looking, Charlie almost felt like the odd one out now.

When he had finally mastered the art of sitting up, Gabe looked at the two siblings before him and frowned.

"Charlie? Toby? Why do you guys look so old?" Gabe looked down and frowned, before looking back at his siblings. "Why am I here? What the hell happened?"

Charlie put her hands up to stop him from escalating to a higher decibel range. "It's a real good thing you remember as far as you do…" she started, when Toby peeped from under her arm.

"You were in a car crash…" he mumbled quietly, sniffing. Gabe looked at his little brother and frowned.

"Car crash? When?"

There was a loud crash down the hall of something being dropped, and Charlie recognized her mother's voice.

"Four years ago…" Toby managed to whisper before their parents crashed into the room. Gabe's face paled when he heard what Toby said, but their parents didn't notice this and instead almost leaped for Gabe and hugged him, crying. Amy looked at her son, and realized how much shock he would be in.

"How much does he remember?" she asked her youngest kids, standing up. Charlie hugged Toby closer when he spoke,

"He remembers up to the argument with Teddy, and we just told him he's been in a car crash four years ago…"

Gabe spoke up. "Yeah, I want a little more clear info, here!"

Amy looked at her son and sighed. "Four years ago, you were in the car, driving back home for Charlie's birthday."

Gabe nodded, remembering. "Yeah, I was having a screaming match with Teddy, what happened _then_?"

"P.J turned to tell you guys to stop yelling, and a drunk driver crashed into the car," Amy continued. "P.J passed instantly, Teddy spent three days in the hospital before she passed and you… have been in a coma for four years…" she said, her voice pitch moving around as she tried not to cry. The woman gave up after her sentence and cried into Bob's shoulder.

Gabe frowned. "Four years…?" he whispered, more to himself then to the others. "Wait… So, I've been here, for fours years? What's happened?"

The family looked around. "Nothing. Its been quiet. And horrible." Charlie blurted out, being the only one to speak for the first time. "I haven't spoken in years, Toby's been crying this whole time. The house isn't chaotic like it should be."

The room was quiet. "Have you watched the video diaries?" Gabe asked. He knew how intent Teddy had been on making those, how she had insisted on making them, so Charlie would grow up hopefully a little better than the others.

"I was going to watch them right before we came down here," Charlie admitted, shaking her head. "They're sitting at home on the TV still…"

Gabe looked down in thought. "When do I get out of here?"

Three days passed, Gabe in the hospital. He was healed and fine, all they needed was to know he had his memory and after some routine checks plus a clean bill of health, and Amy dashing home to grab some old clothes for Gabe, the family of five left the hospital and headed for home.

It was quite late by the time they got home, around dinner time, but nobody was hungry (excepting Gabe) and nobody could eat even if they did have the appetite(again, excepting Gabe). They were going to watch Teddy's video diaries (and a couple of Gabe's that were made for Toby) together. As a family.

Charlie turned the TV on as it had put itself on Stand By at this point, and brought the laptop back to life, the cursor still poised over the play button.

"Everybody ready?" she asked quietly, and was answered will various 'yes's and a 'get on with it!' from her oh-so-loving big brother. Charlie rolled her eyes at Gabe's response and hit play.

The first thing seen was the camera zooming in on Charlie, eating sliced bananas, as a tiny and uncoordinated baby in a high chair.

"_Hey, look at you, Charlie, look how cute you are!," the camera moved to Teddy, "And look how cute I am! I'm making these video diaries to help you through our… _special_ family," _

Everyone almost leaped for the pause button. A fifteen year old Teddy was looking straight at them, and no one wanted to look at anything else. Of course, though, it went back to baby Charlie, mashing her face into the plate of banana.

"_Oh, hey, and it looks like Dad taught you how to eat bananas," Teddy narrated. That was when Amy walked over and sat down in the chair next to Baby Charlie, her hair a mess and her clothes covered in stains of every kind._

"_Oh, and there's Mom, looking lovelier then ever this morning," Teddy said, though her face wasn't in the frame._

_Amy scowled at the camera. "Not in the mood," she muttered before taking the plate of bananas away from Baby Charlie._

"_Okay, I think you've had enough bananas so, were switching to sweet peas!" Amy's voice got high pitched and squeaky as she tried to coax her daughter into loving the sweet peas, "You're gonna love 'em! See, mommy thinks their so good," Amy took a spoonful and put it in her own mouth, "Mm…" At this point, Amy proceeded to spit the peas back into the bowl in disgust._

_Teddy chuckled and swung the camera back to her. "Very smart, always make mommy try it first, 'kay?"_

Charlie couldn't help but laugh, scaring her family. The video kept playing.

"_Oh, there's your older brother P.J doing todays homework at the last minute as usual." It zoomed on P.J, and like with Teddy, everyone wanted to hit pause and never press play again._ Amy put a hand over her mouth, Teddy and P.J both in the shot of the camera.

"My babies…" she muttered as P.J spoke.

"_This isn't todays homework, this is yesterday's homework," P.J said in a 'duh' tone._

_Teddy looked back to the camera and smiled. "There's a chance you two will be in high school together."_

"_Oh, and there's Dad preparing for another days work!" Bob smiled at the camera and waved. Teddy continued, "He kills bugs for a living."_

"_Honey, c'mon, we've been through this. I don't kill bugs, I am a pest control specialist." Bob made it sound very classy and sophisticated work, but Teddy swung the camera back to her._

"_Either way," she dragged a finger across her neck in a symbol of death_. Charlie felt sick at the motion.

"_So yeah, that's the whole family," she smiled, _and Gabe put his ear to the TV, waiting for something. Everyone else was confused until they heard a ten year old Gabe's voice saying_, _

"_Forgetting someone?" in a very annoyed tone._

"_No, no!" Teddy tried to clear it up, "I'm just saving the best for last," she moved the camera over to Gabe and sat in the shot with him. _

"_Charlie that was your younger-older brother Gabe!" she beamed, "Gabe? Anything you wanna say to your baby sister?"_

_Gabe took the camera and swung it to his face, looking straight at it. "You ruined my life."_

The whole family cracked up laughing, barely even listening to Teddy say cut and close the camera. Toby leaned over and paused it, letting the family laugh at the younger Gabe.

"Gosh, tell me what you really think, Gabe!" Charlie sarcastically joked at Gabe, who laughed harder.

"Well you did! And, Missy," Gabe pointed at Charlie, "I specifically remember you _hating _Toby with a passion!"

Toby frowned. That didn't sound like the big sister he knew. "What?" he asked, puzzled. Gabe smiled at his younger brother.

"Yep, she even tried to mail you away. And throw out all of your toys."

This is where Amy stepped in. "Gabe, don't make Charlie look bad. You tried to mail her, Teddy tried to mail you, and P.J tried to mail Teddy."

Toby frowned, thoroughly confused. "How did I not know any of this?" he asked frantically. Gabe laughed.

"Because you were only nine months old!"

Bob stood up between all four of them. "Okay, okay," he held up his hands. "Lets stop this arguing and keep watching, shall we?"

He pressed play and it went through tons and tons of videos, Gabe appearing in some of them to wish Toby good fortune. Charlie tried to think of why she hadn't watched these. They would have helped a _lot _in some cases, and they were closure to bring her closer to her sister and brother. There was even a segment they kept when Teddy thought the video diaries were ruined, and tried recreating them at three in the morning.

Then the last one popped up, and the whole family sat back. Teddy was dressed in the clothes she wore the day of the crash.

"_Hey Charlie! It's your birthday today, your ninth, and its probably about time you start watching these videos. I dunno, maybe on your tenth you can start watching, but I'm warning you, there's a lot to get through. But, when you do watch them… I know this will be the last_."

Charlie frowned, while the rest of the family somehow managed to be more intently looking at the screen.

"_I have a really horrible feeling that something bad is going to happen today. If nothing goes wrong today, Ill delete this video. But if something does, you'll be watching it right now. So, obviously, something has gone wrong, and Charlie_…"

Teddy paused before looking back to the camera.

"_Charlie, you were the best thing that ever happened to this family. You gave us rough times, yes, and your terrible twos started at one and a half and went all the way up to four… But Charlie, you were the best little sister. You were my only little sister, but you were the best I could have hoped for. _

"_And, if you really are watching this then… I'm not there… so… Good luck, Charlie. I love you sis_…"

The screen went black, and the laptop whirred for a moment before exiting the video, going to the video library where all of Teddy's video diaries showed up in little thumbnails.

Charlie was numb.

Teddy had known. Teddy had _KNOWN_.

Teddy had known she wasn't going to make it to Charlie's party. She had _KNOWN_.

And she didn't do anything to stop it.

Charlie stood up, enraged. "She _knew…_" she muttered, her face hot and her breathing heavy.

"Charl…" Toby tried to calm his sister down but she cut him off.

"SHE KNEW!" Charlie kicked the table, the piece of wood flipping. "She knew this was going to happen! SHE COULD HAVE STOPPED IT!"

Gabe stood up and wrapped a strong grip around his younger sister. "Charlie, there was nothing…"

"SHUT IT, GABE!" Charlie screamed, breaking free. "She could have told you and P.J to find something around the house for a present! She could have let the argument with you slide! She could have KEPT ALERT for once in her life and TOLD P.J to STOP THE _FUCKING CAR!_"

Charlie was screaming in hysterics, years of pent up emotion now breaking free. Amy stood up to chaste her daughter for cursing, but the girl didn't even let her speak.

"If she had done any of those things, if she had even stayed at the mall longer she'd STILL BE HERE! THEY'D BOTH STILL BE HERE!" Charlie screamed at them. "WE WOULDN'T EVEN BE UPSET OR BROKEN IF SHE HAD JUST _DONE SOMETHING_!"

Charlie had used up her voice and she broke down into sobs and wails hugging the closest family member possible. Toby.

The youngest Duncan held his older sister. He had cried every night since the crash, but Charlie had held it all back. Now, four years of pent up emotions were flowing freely down her face and soaking his shirt and hair. And he may or may not have been struggling to hold her up.

Gabe stood up and took his younger sister off Toby, walking her downstairs to her room where the young girl cried four a whole hour.

Later that night Charlie went and sat out on the porch, once most of the house was already asleep. However, she found out that not the whole house was asleep when she heard the soft pitter-patters of little feet on the porch, and the shuffling of a blanket being dragged across it.

"Charlie?" Toby's small voice rang out in the silence of the night. Charlie turned to see her younger brother standing in his pajama's, a blue blanket draped over his shoulders. Charlie smiled fondly and patted her lap.

"Come here," she whispered. Toby shuffled over and sat in his sister's lap.

"Are you okay?" he asked softly, "After what happened before?"

Charlie hugged her brother tighter and sighed. "I'm fine…"

They sat there and looked out at the beauty of the street, drowned in the black night and moonlight. Toby's face lit up when he saw the sky.

"Look!" he pointed, "It's a full moon!"

Charlie laughed at him softly. "Actually it's a waning gibbous."

Toby frowned at her. "A what?"

"A waning gibbous. It's what the moon is right before it's a full moon," Charlie explained.

Toby nodded in understanding and looked back up to the sky. "Kinda like our family before Gabe woke up…" he muttered. Charlie frowned at him, confused.

"What are you talking about, kid?" she asked, almost scared for Toby's mental health. Then again, this is the Duncan family.

"I mean," Toby explained, annoyed at his sister's facial expression, "Before Gabe woke up we were broken. We weren't full. And we're still not full, but we're definitely brighter and more full than before."

Charlie stopped to think about what her younger brother had just said. "When did you get so wise?" she asked.

"When our moon was almost full."

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**Just realised Gabe would be 23 years old in this... SHIT. **


End file.
